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TomTom, the satnav maker, has released its sixth annual Traffic Index report. Moscow remains the world’s most congested major city according to data provided, anonymously, by TomTom users. London is the 14th worst congested city in the world. Leeds-Bradford is the 22nd worst; Manchester 28th. Bike friendly cities Copenhagen and Amsterdam are 34th and 47th in the world rankings for traffic delays (just imagine how much worse the jams would be if the 30-40 percent of trips done on bicycles in those cities were done in cars instead).
Car commuters in the UK are spending 8 working days a year stuck in traffic, claimed the Dutch satnav maker.
TomTom’s CEO Harold Goddijn said: “The traditional responses to tackling congestion, like building new roads or widening existing ones are no longer proving effective.”
He added: “Real-time traffic information has the potential to ease congestion in urban areas by routing drivers away from gridlock, and help commuters to make smarter decisions.”
One of those smarter decisions would be to get around a city by bicycle.
Two years ago TomTom had a poster campaign chiding motorists: “You are not stuck in traffic. You are traffic.”
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UK TIME DELAYS
Non-peak car trips in Belfast take up to 32.4 percent longer than when traffic is free-flowing, says TomTom.
Bristol – 31 percent
Brighton & Hove – 29.7 percent
Edinburgh – 29.1 percent
London – 28.9 percent
Leeds-Bradford – 26 percent
Manchester – 23 percent
Leicester – 22.3 percent
Sheffield – 21.7 percent
Liverpool – 21.2 percent
Newcastle – 21 percent
Birmingham – 20 percent
Portsmouth – 20 percent
Glasgow – 17 percent
TomTom said 11 of the 17 UK cities it tracks are now more congested than the same period twelve months earlier. Only Edinburgh, Leeds-Bradford and Nottingham are less congested.
